


The Hanging Tree

by AquaEclipse



Series: Drabbles from Camps [10]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Book 3: The Burning Maze (Trials of Apollo), Book 3: The Titan's Curse (Percy Jackson), Book 4: The Tyrant's Tomb (Trials of Apollo), Book 5: The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson), Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Format: YouTube Video, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hunger Games References, Inspired By Tumblr, Past Character Death, Post-The Trials of Apollo, Song: The Hanging Tree, Songfic, Tags May Change, YouTube, Youtube AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23749660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AquaEclipse/pseuds/AquaEclipse
Summary: 420 viewsAug 18, 2016Strange things have happened hereNo stranger would it beIf we met at midnightIn the hanging treeRest in peace to our brothers, sisters, gender nonconforming siblings and friends, lost at war. You will be missed and remembered.CONTENT WARNING: Death, grief, war, spoilers. The canon timeline is moved forward by 5 years, so TLO takes place in 2014, and all other books’ timelines are similarly adjusted.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Drabbles from Camps [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1569604
Kudos: 32





	The Hanging Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Note: This fic was written before _Tower of Nero_ was released, and therefore assumes that no major characters die in that book. Tags will be subject to change if the book proves me wrong.  
> This fic is written in the format of a YouTube video transcript.

The playscreen opened with a young woman with curly blonde hair, walking into what looked like an empty hall with a dozen huge, customized thrones, arranged in a reverse U shape. Her face was somber, as if remembering a loved one who had long passed on but she still missed.

_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

A strip of pictures depicting three children, the same blonde but younger, an older, sandy-haired teen boy with a troublemaker’s smirk, and a laughing, dark-haired girl with a somewhat goth-punk fashion sense between the two blonds.

_They strung up a man_

_They say who murdered three_

Then a vision of the same older boy disarming a dark-haired boy about the blond’s age in the same hall, eyes glowing gold instead of their usual blue. The blonde girl, now about ten years older, was charging desperately at her former friend/brother, to stop him from committing murder.

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

The blond boy was holding a bronze dagger-knife, stabbing it into his left armpit. In the next shot, he was laying still in the hall, surrounded by the dark-haired boy, another boy who looked like a goat from the waist down, and the same blonde girl from before.

The screen faded back to the blonde girl in the present time, perhaps a couple of years older, with a bone-white sword at her belt instead of the bronze knife, whispering the words with the singer, while giving the three-finger salute of District 12.

_If we met at midnight_

_In the hanging tree_

* * *

The screen blinked out for a moment, only showing the silhouette of a double-edged sword made of two different metals, bronze and steel. As the blade sliced the playscreen in half, the scene had flipped from the golden palace to a beach facing the Atlantic Ocean. The dark-haired boy from the last sequence stood, his bare feet buried in the wet sand. Another boy, one who looked like one of Santa’s elves (but with a deep tan) from behind, was staring wistfully out towards the sea, a bronze suitcase at his side.

_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

An intimidating-looking, dark-skinned young man was standing next to a scarlet-eyed dragon automaton. The bronze dragon was nuzzling its head into his hand, as he gave it a brief smile.

_Where dead man called out_

_For his love to flee_

The young man pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and showed it to the dark-haired boy. It was a photograph of a breathtaking girl with blue eyes, smiling at the camera. It was obvious that the two were deeply in love.

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

The young man pressed his left hand to the watch on his right wrist. The ship rumbled and shook violently and as the dark-haired boy landed in the ocean, the cruise ship had erupted into green flames.

The dark-haired boy gave a sad smile to his friend, who shook his head in response. Both of them raised their left hands in the three-finger salute towards the rolling waves.

_If we met at midnight_

_In the hanging tree_

* * *

A plume of green flames took to the screen and burnt away the background to the shores of the East River in Manhattan. A blond in an orange shirt gazed across the river, as if looking for someone on the other side. His hand was on a first-aid kit at his waist.

_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

The playscreen faded to a close-up shot of a short, ferrety boy with his eyes narrowed, arrow notched in his bow. He released the arrow, which flew through the air, steel tip sinking into the bullseye of a target further away than the effective range of a normal user of a compound bow.

_Where I told you to run_

_So we'd both be free_

It was the Manhattan side of the East River this time. The ferrety boy was shouting, and the other dark-haired boy (he’s everywhere, man…) stabbed his sword into the suspension bridge. With a blast, the bridge had collapsed and chunks of it hit the river with a splash. The blond from the first sequence was standing on the other side of the bridge in Brooklyn, who then raised a scythe in a mock salute. By the time the boy who was all over the place turned around, there was no ferret man to be seen, only a bow and several others staring at the wreckage in shock, for their brother had disappeared into thin air.

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

The dark-haired boy grabbed a familiar blond, though younger, by the shoulder after loading a motorbike with healing supplies and they sped away towards the Plaza Hotel, with no time for either to mourn properly. It was, after all, a war zone they were traversing.

At the present day, the blond medic shook his head at the river and turned around, giving the salute in memory of his brother, fallen in battle and leaving him to try to put his siblings and their innocence back together.

_If we met at midnight_

_In the hanging tree_

* * *

This time, it was the bow left behind which was nocked with an arrow, which shot through the screen to reveal a large, muscular girl with a scar on her chin and a long spear in her hand.

_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

The large girl and the girl with bright blue eyes from the second sequence sat on the porch in front of a blue house, talking. It was obvious that they were close.

_Wear a necklace of hope_

_Side by side with me_

A figure in blood-red armour led the charge with thirty others in war chariots, who then tried to attack a serpentine creature, only to be hit with its breath attack.

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

The large girl cradled the armoured girl’s head in her lap, the latter breathing heavily and staring into the sky with those blue eyes going blank.

The girl in front of the cameras looked far less war-torn now, but her brown eyes gave away her grief for losing her best friend to her father’s domain. The salute was repeated.

_If we met at midnight_

_In the hanging tree_

* * *

The streets of Manhattan faded to a silver bracelet with a scythe charm, which then shattered to a million pieces, then the video clarified again in a junkyard in the middle of a desert. The next on the war veterans list was a scruffy teen boy in a bomber jacket. He held a black sword in one hand, the sword seemingly sucking out even the dim light of the junkyard, making the atmosphere appear even more grim that it already was. In his other hand was a small figurine, like an action figure you get from a McDonald’s Happy Meal or a collection shop.

_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

The flashback briefly showed a girl of similar appearance, holding the same figurine in her hand. Her hair was braided back. Then the girl gave the figurine to the dark-haired boy from several past sequences, then ran off to climb into a rusty bronze automaton towering over her companions.

_Where I told you to run_

_So we'd both be free_

The girl fiddled at a control panel, most likely inside the giant automaton, which was dancing and slapping itself under her control. Then sparks began to fly and the automaton was collapsing on itself and the girl was screaming-

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

Her brother, about ten or eleven then, fled into the woods. Years later, he had returned to his sister’s place of death to show a final sign of farewell, before the silhouette of the figurine appeared on the screen, only to come to life and stab the screen with his bident.

_If we met at midnight_

_In the hanging tree_

* * *

The scene picked up again outside what looked like a military barrack, where a pink-haired girl was sitting next to a laurel shrub, fiddling her Star of David necklace.

_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

A half-goat - a “faun” - with an afro was begging for food in what looked like an open cafeteria. He was speaking to that dark-haired boy who had showed up in so many of these sequences, along with an African American girl and a stocky boy of Chinese descent.

_Where they strung up a man_

_They say who murdered three_

The faun, along with some other humanoids with green or seawater-coloured skin, were adjusting the angles of which several catapults were to be launched; then the ‘camera’ cut away to the catapults shooting balls of green fire directly upward into the air, then exploding the luxury yachts the weapons were placed.

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

The faun was most definitely suffering from third-degree burns in the next shot, as the pink-haired girl, a boy with curly hair and several others. He smiled up at his friends, as if to tell one last joke, then went limp, the light in his blue eyes clearly fading.

Outside the barrack, the girl solemnly looked at the camera and gave the salute, in remembrance for her fallen friend.

_If we met at midnight_

_In the hanging tree_

* * *

The screen faded once again to a falling leaf, wiping away the previous verse; but instead of just one, it was the goth-punk girl from the old photo collection, as well as a girl of indigenous descent, standing on a beach. The former was wearing a silver circlet, looking healthier than before, but otherwise seemed to look the same despite the passage of time.

_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

An old photo of a seven-year-old version of the goth-punk girl appeared. She was holding a blond toddler in the dusty photo. Both of them looked nothing alike save for the identical electric blue eyes. Then the blond toddler was a blond young man of about fifteen or sixteen, duelling titans and giants alike with a golden gladius in hand in many different scenes, sometimes with others at his side, sometimes standing alone.

_Where dead man called out_

_For his love to flee_

The screen switched away to what looked like a throne room on water. The blond boy looked barely older than the previous scene but he was duelling for his life once again, already bleeding from several cuts and arrow wounds. A man who resembled Daryl Dragon of Captain & Tennille thrust a spear through his back, and he was toppling to the floor, as a soldier took his final stand-

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

The scene cut away to the indigenous girl screaming over her ex’s body on the beach while a young girl scowled at the older boy from the last sequence, who was trying to calm the first girl down. Though his attempts were in vain, it was clear that all three were left broken-hearted.

And finally, as the verse ended, the dark-haired girl placed a hand over the indigenous girl’s shoulder as the waves crashed against the Californian shore, the latter holding onto a diorama of sorts, both of them giving an identical salute goodbye. The fading silhouette symbol at the closing of the verse was a golden coin with the letter IVLIVS, which changed into a golden lance and stabbed at the screen, electrocuting the black background to pieces.

_If we met at midnight_

_In the hanging tree_

* * *

The video cut to the footage of multiple funeral pyres burning as the haunting melody continued to play in the background. Then came a chain of pictures - boys and girls and some who identify beyond the binary, with their names, lifespans, and titles. Eventually, it zoomed out to show a collage of a painting, depicting child soldiers in armour and weapons strapped to their backs or belts, fighting off monsters and titans and giants and more. One would wonder why there were few or no adults in battle with them - were they really so irresponsible to let children fight their battles for them?

As the volume of the music grew, the screen blinked. A group of mostly teenagers but some children and some young adults stood side by side, about half of them in bright orange shirts, the other half in vivid purple. A couple of them were wearing black, perhaps in mourning, perhaps just channeling their aesthetic. In the front stood the dark-haired boy who showed up in far too many of the sequences, the blonde who had grown so many years, the boy with the bronze suitcase, the warrior who lost her best friend in a cruel Achilles-Patroclus parallel, the goth-punk girl still looking the same, the two who had lost their older siblings hand in hand, the indigenous girl who fell in and out of love with a man she could never have a second chance with again, and the pink-haired Legionnaire with a dead friend. All of them raised three fingers in a familiar salute, then the screen faded to black.

**Author's Note:**

> DATE OF WRITING: 19 April - inspired by a Tumblr post about Thalia dyeing her hair blonde in memory of her brother, as well as the reading of THG fanfiction  
> DATE OF POSTING: 20 April 2020 - yes, the day is deliberately timed. If you smoke weed, be responsible doing it, okay?
> 
> Thanks for reading, I really hope you enjoyed this. My Tumblr repost can be found here:  
> https://daughterofathenathatsokwspiders.tumblr.com/post/615899602235899904/the-hanging-tree


End file.
